Money Talk: Significant U.S. storm events contribute to $4 billion December insurance bill
by January 11, 2016 5:00 am 122 views
Editor’s note: Each Monday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Money Talk,” a wrap-up of banking and financial news.
SIGNIFICANT U.S. STORM EVENTS CONTRIBUTE TO $4 BILLION DECEMBER INSURANCE BILL: Preliminary estimates from global reinsurer Aon suggest that total economic losses from the weather events during December will exceed $4 billion with insured losses likely to approach or exceed $2 billion. Already, the Insurance Council of Texas reported losses of $1.2 billion in the Dallas metropolitan area alone.
The severe weather pattern resulted in 64 deaths, at least 58 tornado touch-downs, historic flooding in the Mississippi Valley and Midwest, and record snowfall and ice that led to extensive travel disruption, as well as hail and damaging winds. Parts of the Midwest, Plains, Southeast, Rockies and Northeast were all impacted by the inclement weather, though the states of Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Indiana were among the hardest-hit.
On Jan. 13, Aon will release its Impact Forecasting’s Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe report, which will offer a comprehensive analysis of the natural disaster events of 2015. Preliminary data reveals that despite a higher than normal number of disasters, overall losses were below normal on both an economic and insured loss basis. The U.S. accounted for 60% of all global insured losses in 2015.
MILLENNIALS LACKING IN FINANCIAL LITERACY, STUDY SAYS: Millennials are better educated than their predecessors, more ethnically diverse, and more economically active, but they confront greater economic difficulties than the generations before them, according to a new report by the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University.
The report, conducted with support from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, analyzes the financial characteristics of more than 5,500 Millennials and examines the factors that threaten their economic aspirations and security. Among the overall population, Millennials are the age group with the lowest level of financial literacy, it said.
TAXPAYER ADVOCATE EXPRESSES CONCERNS ABOUT IRS SERVICE ISSUES: National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson recently released her 2015 annual report to Congress expressing concern that the IRS may be on the verge of dramatically scaling back telephone and face-to-face service it has provided for decades to assist the nation’s 150 million individual taxpayers and 11 million business entities in complying with their tax obligations.
The report reiterates a recommendation the Advocate made in June that the IRS release its “Future State” plan documents, provide additional detail about their anticipated impact on taxpayer service operations, and solicit comments from the public. The report also recommends that Congress conduct oversight hearings on the plan.